Friday, 07:00
It's a foggy morning, but it's dry surprisingly.
As the priest continues reciting the psalms, Aleks stared at Hilda's face, he didn't know why, but there he was, staring... "Poor Hilda" he thinks to himself.
There are only 8-9 people in the funeral, most of them are from the apartment but there is Hilda's father Eli Cohen, right beside Aleks. Eli had had left Hilda's mother, Nadia when Hilda was 6; for another woman. "This man has not changed a bit since I have last seen him, it was 1973, I was 8" Aleks says to himself.
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09:30
Her grave has been filled, everyone is leaving. "It's sad, how we are all going back to continue with our lives" Aleks looks at Hilda and looks around to see if Eli is still there. "What? He hasn't even talked to Hilda" he says under his breath as Eli walks away, out of the graveyard.
"I'll just ask Hilda if I can take her back to the apartment" he walks to Hilda cautiously
"Hilda, do you have to go to your relatives?" He asks softly, and waits patiently for Hilda to respond but surprisingly enough Hilda immediately says "no"
"Will you go to the apartment now?" He asks again softly
She nods and wipes her tears off, still looking at the grave. "Alright I'll get you a taxi" Aleks immediately starts jogging towards the exit.
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As soon as Aleks jogs outside, he notices a person entering the graveyard with some flowers, not a bouquet of flowers but just a few flowers...picking and throwing off the bad ones and keeping the nice ones.
"We are all like those flowers" he says to himself and waves his hand at the approaching traffic to attract a taxi"
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A taxi finally stops and the driver asks, how many people instead of where to. "1" Aleks replies. The driver nods and holds Aleks's hand. Before Aleks says anything, the driver smiles "You don't have to pay, I know you're paying for someone else and that someone is mourning"
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As Hilda walks out, she keeps on looking back at her mother's grave often. Aleks is walking behind her, escorting her to taxi.
"Get in, dear" the driver surprises Aleks by holding the door for Hilda. "Thank you" Aleks says softly and smiles at him and stands there as Hilda gets in.
Soon, the driver gets back to his seat and the slowly drive off as Aleks just stood there
"She didn't cry much, which is not good because she is trying to keep it to herself"
Aleks says to himself as he pulls out a box of cigarettes and pulls out the matches at the same time to smoke...
And the clouds above him were slowly showing themselves along the sun. The sunlight hit Aleks right on the face.
